


Aurin Have Their Uses

by lesbomancy



Category: WildStar (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Mad Science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 11:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6078201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbomancy/pseuds/lesbomancy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Old Wildstar story between Gerra Venko and one of her brief proteges, Malri Whitebark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aurin Have Their Uses

The bright, snowy aurin with two lame prosthetic arms wandered throughout the secretive asteroid laboratory. A chilly, stale recycled air poured loudly from the ventilation shafts as she was guided to a workstation by the clacking of Gerra’s wedge heeled boots on shiny metal flooring.

Wide-eyed and in wonderment, Malri nearly got lost a few times in observing the station and it’s extensive renovations to the lower levels. The hangar that SCAR Corporation knew so well was a ten-story building’s height above them through a few tons of bedroock. The aurin had thought to raise her voice in question but the utter social fear of saying anything to Venko other than ‘yes’ was at best crippling and at worst deserving of a new pair of trousers.

Like any Exo-lab it was ancient and filled with forgotten technology and forbidden practices. The mouse droids that zipped around had glowing jade power cores, an indication of where they drew their designs from. In many ways it was discomforting to see the older mordesh stalk along in the sterile hall which gave way to thick, clear solitary confinement chambers for various projects.

Creatures the size of small tanks, people in tubes, weapons too large for even an osun to handle were splayed out with nothing but a number on the glass to indicate what they were. As they passed by the 47th chamber Gerra stopped, turned on a heel and lifted her prosthetic arm to her waist, left hand tapping on the built-in screen so that the chamber opened. The hiss and mist of gold air wafted out into the hall, forcing a turret on the ceiling to jerk erratically to face the cloud and assess it’s threat level.

A nanomachinery laboratory, mostly frosted blue cryopod tubes all hooked up to a central console. As Malri entered she would find herself beset by the cold unlike before, despite her resistance to cold she would find herself shivering. Gerra presented the machine to her, taking a step to the side.

“Doctor Whitebark. You must reverse engineer these machines and make them bend to my will. As you know I specialize in Eldan nanomachinery, not.. this work. It is clearly human in it’s design, pragmatic, crude and pragmatic. You will find a way to work with it.. and you will find it with me,” said Gerra, moving to her own station.

The screen before Malri showed a ful 3D model of a nanomachine, it’s programmed splayed out across five different subscreens as best Gerra could make it. It was sloppy work for both the programmer and Gerra but to Malri she began to see patterns and mistakes.. and the full extent of what these machines were supposed to do.

Much like the Eldan nanomachines they intended to bend someone to another’s will without regard for any past life or trauma. These machines would warp a being into a mental and physical template to be built upon by someone with the master control program, someone who was capable of shutting these nanomachines down, remotely editing their programming or disabling the one injected with them outright.

She took to the work instinctively, her eyes zipping around as if she were watching for a predator. Deeper and deeper into the program, Malri began to order Gerra what to do. The programming was a maze of failsafes and virus-like coding which would erase hours of Malri and Gerra’s work if they so much as went down the wrong virtual corridor.

And then they found the core of it. The kernal which all the programs stemmed from, the beginning… it was a mordesh’s work, Malri able to recognize it’s signature as something that resembled Gerra’s. The mordesh became distant and stiff at the discovery but they quickly went to work, snipping free the harmful processes and keeping those that made sense.

No more memory tampering, no attitude adjustment, no failsafe to kill the user with a swipe of a button.

As Malri finished, Gerra eagerly hovered behind the aurin. With the finished product saved and a self-replicating virus in place to spread the programming other nanomachines of the same make and model. Once the aurin woman had hit 'save,’ the mordesh was ever so gently edging the woman away from the console and towards the door.

Gerra’s heels made footfall on the metal flooring of the hall again, the woman closing the door behind her. Malri, confused, let herself get pushed around with her mechanical arms flopping back down to a lame lack of use. Her brow furrowed and she tried to look back at the console as the data was confirmed and the machinery inside began to insert the reprogrammed nanomachines into the cryopods.

As she noticed a hand pressing to the side of the frosty glass she was shut out from the room, Gerra’s legs blocking her view as she pointed to the exit.

“Thank you, Doctor Whitebark. Leave now,” Gerra ordered.

Malri thought to protest, instead furrowing her brow and waddling off, looking back at Gerra every few feet until she got to the elevator. Eventually she was at the teleporter to the station, noticing all of the cameras pointed at her as if she were a monster or a villain.

She frowned at the situation and stepped onto the teleporter back to Nexus, finding herself instantly away from Venko’s inquistiorial eye and her strange projects.

At least she got time and a half!


End file.
